A hundred year ago, cancer was not so common but since last couple of decades, its incidence is rising alarmingly, probably due to our changing lifestyle and habits. The situation is so alarming that every fourth person is having a life time risk of cancer. More than 11 lac new cases of cancer are registered every year in India whereas this figure is above 14 millions worldwide.

We are constantly exposed to a variety of cancer causing agents, known as carcinogens, in the food, we eat; in the water, we drink and in the air, we breathe. Our single meal may contain a dozen of carcinogens in the form of residues of pesticides and insecticides. Exposure to nuclear radiation, ionising radiation (X-rays, Gamma rays), particle radiation emitted by radioactive substances, Solar radiation and electromagnetic radiation can cause cancer. Likewise there is a long list of chemical, physical, biological and geographical carcinogens.

Transformation of a normal cell into a cancerous cell is probably not such a critical event in the genesis of cancer rather it is the inability of immune cells of the body to identify & destroy the newly formed cancer cells when they are a few in number. We have observed that the risk of cancer is multiplied in those persons, whose immune system is suppressed due to any factor including chronic stress, old age, chronic debilitating disease and abuse of drugs such as analgesics, antibiotics and corticosteroids. Moreover, the life has become fast and competitive, from ‘cradle to grave’ leading to chronic stress that further enhances the risk of cancer by suppressing immune system of the body. The incidence of cancer is higher in persons affected by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), HIV and other viral infections including Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells in any tissue or organ of the body and these cells have a tendency to spread and grow in other parts of the body. Normal cell division is a highly regulated mechanism, controlled by genes (made up of DNA) through growth regulatory pathways. Prolonged exposure to carcinogens damages the DNA and induces mutations in the growth regulatory genes including oncogenes (ras, N-myc, c-myc, HER-2/neu, etc), tumour suppressor genes (p53, Rb, Ret, WT-1, APC, etc) and pathways (ras, Rb, myc, etc) leading to loss of control over normal cell division. The mutated cells go haywire and proliferate indiscriminately usually forming a mass, known as a neoplasm or a malignant tumour or in simple words, a Cancer.

As the time passes, the cancer cells go on accumulating further mutations and acquire more evil characteristics such as ability to invade & move into the adjoining tissues, travel through lymph and blood vessels, lodge and grow in other parts of the body to form colonies (metastasis), create their own blood vessels (tumour angiogenesis) for their nurtition, evade the process of programmed cell death (apoptosis) and acquire the ability of limitless replication, making the cancer cells immortal.

By the time most of the cancers are finally diagnosed, they have already added many mutations, for example ALL (a blood cancer) has been found to have 5 to 10 mutations at the time of diagnosis. Pancreatic cancer has shown 50 to 60 mutations while Breast & Colon cancers have 50 to 80 mutations at the time of diagnosis. Similarly most of the cancers have 11 to 15 aberrant (mutated) pathways at the time of diagnosis.

Conventional approach to manage cancer is cut it (by surgery), burn it (by radiotherapy) and poison it (by chemotherapy). When a cancer is localised, this can be removed by surgery but in most of the cases, it is practically impossible to detect cancer in such an early stage. The cancerous cells do get killed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but both of these therapies also destroy normal cells in the body, leading to various side effects. Other techniques including targeted chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation (BMT), stem cell transplantation, hormonal therapy, SRS, Cyber knife, Gamma knife, photodynamic therapy, cryosurgery, hyperthermia and immunotherapy have their own limitations.

While undergoing conventional treatment (such as chemotherapy/target chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy), cancer cells may acquire further mutations and become resistant or refractory to the therapy, leading to progression or recurrence of cancer.

Sino Vedic Cancer Research Centre was founded in 1985 by Dr. S.P. Kaushal, M.B.B.S., M.D. (Chinese Medicine), Ph.D., D.Sc. (Honoris Causa), along with a team of doctors and scientists with aim to explore the role of herbs to fight cancer. As cancer is a malady of genes & pathways so the fight against cancer was focused at normalising the cancer cells by reversing their acquired mutations in genes & pathways.

Sino Vedic Cancer Research team has identified anticancer herbs having DNA repairing, antimutagenic, antitumourangiogenic, proapoptotic, immunomodulatory, radioprotective & chemoprotective properties. After identification, this team isolated the specific active principles (phytoconstituents) from selected anticancer herbs, which were used to develop various Sino Vedic herbal formulations to fight cancer, without side effects.

Sino Vedic herbal formulations are better remedies, especially for those patients who have become resistant or refractory to chemotherapy and for those who are not fit to receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy due to old age, marked weakness or any other factor such as kidney and liver dysfunction or cardiac insufficiency.

Sino Vedic herbal formulations help to fight cancer at every step i.e., genesis, growth and spread of cancer. These herbal formulations tame aggressive cancer cells by repairing damaged DNA, inhibiting mutations in genes and pathways, blocking various cancer promoting enzymes and hormone, reviving the process of apoptosis, inhibiting tumour angiogenesis and boosting immune system of the body.